by Crystal Thomas, MCM, CHE

Now is the perfect time to assess what is going right for your club and for you to assess what you would like to accomplish in the upcoming season. While you can’t see the future, you can do your best to affect the outcome. It is always necessary to do an evaluation of ourselves and our team to see if we performed as expected. Such a session does not have to be protracted or even arduous. All one needs is a willingness to look at all aspects of the club and our management style in an open and honest way. Sometimes such a process can leave us feeling either exhilarated or may leave us with a sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach. Did we even set goals this year? Did we mean to, but “life” got in the way and we just never got it done?

Setting goals creates the path to achieving what you want. Once you have a clear direction, you can then proceed with goal setting. Setting clear goals is not a passive act. It needs direct action in order to make it happen. Always remember that you are either moving toward your goals or you are moving away from them. Therefore, clearly written goals that are acted upon are the key to keeping your club moving forward and keeping yourself and your team on task.

Using the Creating S.M.A.R.T. goals from Paul J. Meyer’s book “Attitude is Everything”, S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym which easily reminds us of the five components of structuring a goal. We all learned this at some level, but a reminder is always useful!

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Tangible

Specific – a specific goal is more likely to be achieved than a general goal. In order to set a specific goal you must answer the five “W” questions we learned in grade school of “who, what, where, why, and when”.

Who:     who is involved in this goal?
What:    what do I want to accomplish?
Where:  what is the location?
Why:      what is the specific purpose, reason, or benefit of this achievement?
When:   what is the time frame involved?

Measurable – in order to achieve your goal, you will need to ensure that it is measurable. Know which measure you will use as you set the goal, so you are able to track it. You must be able to quantify your results in a meaningful way such as by using numbers, percentages, completed actions, etc.

Attainable – it is important that the goal you set is attainable. You shouldn’t set a goal that is too easy to attain, but always setting a goal that there is absolutely no way to achieve is like banging your head up against a wall. It is also hard on the team morale! When you set your goals for the upcoming year, some will be quite attainable (likely would have attained them if you had recorded them or not) and some will be much more of a stretch. Goals that are more difficult to attain offer you and your team an experience to really brainstorm the achievement process.

Realistic – you must believe in the goal and be both willing and able to work on it. The goal must be something that, with some work and perhaps creativity, is attainable.

Tangible – your goal must be something that can be understood and evaluated and when it is accomplished has a physical existence or can be seen or affected by the other senses. If the goal is esoteric in nature, you have a hard time describing it, measuring it and therefore achieving it. There may be other intangible goals that must be completed in order to get the tangible goal completed.

If you plan your goal incorporating Meyer’s acronym “S.M.A.R.T”, you have something that you and your team are very likely to attain.

Now, let’s “2008” this acronym! How about

Significant
Motivating
Attitude
Return
Teachable

If you build your goal using Meyer’s model, and then stay committed to the process for the time period, you will not only achieve your goals, but will be able to use it as a stepping stone for future accomplishments. Now, if you revisit this to be sure that it is:

a significant goal that will:
motivate your team
keep the right attitude amongst the team,
allow the team to see the return to the club and perhaps to themselves
permit you  to teach your team something new.

If there is such a thing as an easy answer to business and how one conducts our lives, this is it. Goal setting is an effective way to ensure that you will see a measurable difference. Decision making will happen much more rapidly and easily because you will see how the decision will either move you toward or away from your goal. Above all, celebrate each goal that you have achieved with great fanfare.

We hope you find this approach to goal setting refreshing and offer you this as another tool for your management toolbox! Good luck as you continue to move your club forward.

This article was written by Crystal Thomas, MCM, CHE, Principal of Crystal Clear Concepts, Inc., which is a training and seminar company offering tools to focus on team and club success.